Mote

Mote is a low-contrast utilitarian sans serif typeface designed mainly for print. Its design started out in early 2012 as a student project at the postgraduate course Type and Media at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, Netherlands. Since then a lot of things have changed, but the main impression and appeal has stayed the same. This unpretentious look featuring subtle quirks was influenced by neutral gothic and grotesque designs. As is with most typefaces of this genre, Mote’s contrast type is hard to define and not in direct relation with a writing tool. Even though the shapes are almost never repeated in an identical manner, one could say it is a constructed typeface. To make the letterforms harmonious and indulge this typefaces underlying tendency for symmetry, the shapes had to be made different from each other.

To maintain the raw and no-nonsense character, alternate glyphs replace ligatures as a way to seamlessly merge letterforms while solving specific issues. The italics have a somewhat looser character and flow, since they are not only slanted, but also more closely related to handwriting. The extreme weights – Light and Black – are expectedly more expressive and perform best at larger sizes as headlines and titles.

Mote is available in six weights with matching italics and a large character set with more than 1000 glyphs per font. Several Open­Type features are included: small capitals, case sensitive forms, ligatures, various kinds of numbers and fractions... This variety of styles, additional features and equipment make Mote a good choice even for the most complex of editorial projects. Still, being so unintrusive, Mote is potentially a good companion to a serifed or an expressive display typeface.

In its own way, Mote tries to answer the question in what way can archetypal letterforms still be reinvented.

To maintain the raw and no-nonsense character, alternate glyphs replace ligatures as a way to seamlessly merge letterforms while solving specific issues. The italics have a somewhat looser character and flow, since they are not only slanted, but also more closely related to handwriting. The extreme weights – Light and Black – are expectedly more expressive and perform best at larger sizes as headlines and titles.

Mote is available in six weights with matching italics and a large character set with more than 1000 glyphs per font. Several Open­Type features are included: small capitals, case sensitive forms, ligatures, various kinds of numbers and fractions... This variety of styles, additional features and equipment make Mote a good choice even for the most complex of editorial projects. Still, being so unintrusive, Mote is potentially a good companion to a serifed or an expressive display typeface.

In its own way, Mote tries to answer the question in what way can archetypal letterforms still be reinvented.

Mote

Published

by Typonine

Year 2013

Description

Mote’s unpretentious look featuring subtle quirks was influenced by neutral gothic and grotesque designs. One could say it’s somewhat a constructed typeface but the shapes are never repeated in an identical manner. To make the letterforms harmonious and seamingly symmetrical, the shapes had to be made different from each other. Mote balances between being charming and maintaining it’s unintrusive character.